Batting great Vivian Richards has slammed the WICB for its failure to sort out the differences with Chris Gayle and said he finds the cricket board’s decision to ask the former captain to apologise “ludicrous” and “a little far-fetched”. The 59-year-old Richards said he does not agree to everything that Gayle did but felt the left-handed batsman still needs support.
“I would like to believe that at present, the West Indies Cricket Board is basically making Chris Gayle out to be this villain about apologising and what he has got to do, the criteria that is required for him to be part of the unit again, and I just think that’s a little far-fetched in my opinion,” he told the Antigua Observer newspaper. “Let me also take this opportunity to say that I am not in Chris Gayle’s corner (with) most decisions he makes, but I think that this whole issue is potent enough and I feel he needs some support,” he added. The 32-year-old Gayle has been sidelined from West Indies national team since the 2011 World Cup, for criticising the cricket board and its head coach Ottis Gibson in an interview with a Jamaican radio station.
